SDGs Empower Station Information

Purpose

1. Raise awareness of global and diverse societies.
2. Collaborate with partner schools from overseas to bring awareness about international students.
3. Develop practical English skills of participating students.
4. Create a comfortable space full of flowers and greenery on the campus.

General Information

Currently, about 90 international students from 12 countries are enrolled at Yonezawa Campus. While they are not always visible, this equates to about 2.5% of the total number of students on this campus. Interestingly, this is nearly the same percentage as foreigners in Japan as a whole. Considering the unseen diversity, faculty and gender equality staff on campus have also expressed the necessity of raising awareness of LGBTQ+ on campus.
In this project, we will upcycle planters located in the square in front of the student cafeteria. Until now, this area has not been well maintained, but this project hopes to create an environment that increases interest and awareness about our multicultural society. The upcycling and maintenance will be conducted by the International Exchange Center as an English activity for both foreign and Japanese students and staff. Both participants of the activity and students and staff who notice the beautification will be greatly impacted. By partnering with the Okitama Agricultural High School, the flowers will be attractive and locally-raised, and we can deepen our exchanges and cooperation with our local community.
After cleaning the old planters and planting the new flowers, we will install panels designed with LGBTQ+ flags and the country flags of our overseas partner schools. The square will be refreshed, and everyone who walks by will become more aware of the diversity on our campus. This project will be completed by students and staff after first considering the local weather and COVID-19 safety restrictions on campus. Therefore, the exact dates are yet to be determined.

We received the YU-SDGs Award 2021

Step One	On Monday, October 18th the first step of our project began! Students, professors, and staff all helped to remove the old weeds and roots from the planters. It was hard work, but the Square is already looking better. Thanks to everyone from English Lunch Chat and YUICY who helped. On Monday, October 25th students from English Lunch Chat and YUICY continued to help. We removed a lot of old soil! On Thursday, October 28th we finished removing all of the old soil! Good job everyone!
Step Two	On Monday, November 1st, preparations for painting began. Monday, November 8th gave us beautiful weather. We moved the planters to their new locations. Thursday, November 18th we finished the second coat of paint. They look very white and clean now!
Step Three	On Friday, October 29th, we got to look at some examples of the flags and signs. They’re going to look great! On Friday, November 19, we began installing the flags! The square is looking so beautiful and colorful! On Monday, November 29th we finished installing the country flags! On Monday, December 6th, we installed some logos onto the sides of the planters. We will display the Yamagata University logo, International Exchange Center logo, and the SDG Empower logo.
Step Four	Monday, December 6th: We have had some delays due to the weather, but we started putting soil back into the planters! Let’s hope the weather will be kind to us again! April 19th and 20th: we refilled all the soil and cleaned the planters. Finally, spring has come and we can continue our project. On Monday, May 9th, we placed all the missing logos on the planters and now they are basically done! Only the flowers are missing. We also fixed some winter damage and repaired a few of the flags and re-painted the planters during May.
Step Five	On Friday, June 3rd, we got help from the Okitama Agricultural High School! We planted flowers and enjoyed talking in English together. This concludes this project, thank you so much everyone! So beautiful.